Author Spotlight

My mom and I went to see Sarah Addison Allen at Malaprop's for her First Frost book launch. We've seen her several times before and we always enjoy hearing her speak and meeting her. She is just the cutest, sweetest thing you've ever met. We got there 30-45 minutes early and the space was filling up fast. Malaprop's always passes around wine and maybe some cheese, but at Ms. Allen's events, we always get something a little extra. I don't know whether to thank the staff or the author for that but we sure appreciate it! This time, we got cute little pink and white cupcakes, vintage-looking apple napkins, and bowls of bright red apples in crystal-looking bowls. How cute is that? When Ms. Allen arrived, she was just as cute and sweet as ever. She spoke about how we all have "befores and afters" in our lives. Her big "before and after" is cancer but another big one is Garden Spells. She reflected on that for a bit and then read us her speech for that first tour. It was about her great-aunt and it was called, "Unmentionables." She had us in stitches! She then graciously answered several audience questions and then the book signing started. When my mom and I got to the front of the line, Ms. Allen complimented us on our scarves, then paused, really looked at us, and asked, "Were you at my signing last year?" We were shocked! She remembered us! We are both quiet and try our best to fly under the radar, so it was impressive that she remembered us! I guess there aren't that many curly-headed mother/daughter duos who show up at all her signings. :-) We told her how much we enjoyed her work and she graciously thanked us and…

Yet again, I have no pictures. Rick Bragg came to speak about his new book, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story at Malaprop's recently. I personally am not interested in Jerry Lee Lewis but I knew I had to go see Rick Bragg. I fell in love with his work when I read Ava's Man. What an experience! Ron Rash introduced Rick Bragg and a [...]

Kate DiCamillo came to Spellbound Children's Bookshop, another local bookstore, recently. The space was packed with parents and children! It's hard to say which group was most excited. I'm terrible about taking pictures at these things so I don't have any to share. But Ms. DiCamillo was very kind and gracious and pretty funny. She asked the audience whether we wanted a reading or just a Q&A session and the group requested that she read from Because of Winn Dixie. I haven't read it before. As Ms. DiCamillo said, I tend to shy away from books about animals. I don't trust authors not to kill them off. Why can't we stop with a happily ever after for pets too? Then she answered quite a few questions from the audience, standing up on a step stool the whole time so we could see her. The signing line looked terrible but it was actually pretty organized and moved along pretty quickly. Ms. DiCamillo had agreed to sign as many books as we wanted and some people literally had a bag full. Holy cow. When I got to the front, she was very kind and when I said that her hand must be hurting she said no, she enjoyed seeing us all. I had The Tale of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane signed for myself and Flora & Ulysses signed for my niece. If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend that you go meet this talented author in person! I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

In case you missed my extended fangirl squee a few weeks ago, Neil Gaiman came to lil' ol' Asheville, NC Sunday night. He was part of The Unchained Tour, a group of performers traveling around the South and telling stories. As founder and author George Dawes Green explained it, the tour was to bring awareness to local communities. First, they're highlighting the necessity to get "unchained" from the big box bookstores and other stores and shop locally; and second, to get "unchained" from the internet and social media and interact with each other, especially in the format of storytelling. The first storyteller and emcee was Peter Aguero. He and musician Rachel Kate kept us entertained in between stories. He also told a story about a Christmas with his mom a few years after his dad left. It was honest and heartfelt and funny and moving. His might have been our favorite story. Next up was Dawn J. Fraser. She regaled us with a story about her dreams of running in the Olympics; how she came to acquire the nickname "Frizzled Fowl" (My husband was told in no uncertain terms that he will be killed if he ever looks at my hair and just thinks "Frizzled Fowl");  and how her twin brother, who has Down's Syndrome, inspired her to get her life back on track after she was dealt a crushing blow. She was also funny and sincere and we just had to love her when she lapsed into a lilting Trinidadian accent. And then came Edgar Oliver. Oh my. I've never heard a voice like his before, and Peter assured us beforehand that we were going to hear Edgar's real speaking voice. I hate to say it, but he spoke too slowly even for my Southern ears. I kind of…

I went to Malaprop's Bookstore on Sunday afternoon to see Joshilyn Jackson speak about her new book, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. I've seen Joshilyn speak multiple times, but I always love hearing what she has to say. She is hilarious, and she knows how to keep a crowd entertained. I am most definitely paraphrasing Joshilyn's words. My apologies to everyone if I get anything wrong. She primarily talked about the inspiration for her characters and setting in A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. When she was touring for her first book, gods in Alabama, she visited Bay Books in Mississippi. She said "I'm from the Gulf Coast of Florida, where the landscape is just so pristine and perfect, it hurts to look at it. Then I visited the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and that was something entirely different. I couldn't help looking at this fecund landscape thinking that anything buried here is not going to stay buried. It is going to burst out in new growth in unexpected ways. Being me, I thought about burying a body." Oh, and about fecund. She says that one of her assistants(?) has a drinking game where everyone has to do a shot whenever Joshilyn says the word while talking about A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.  Good thing Malaprop's doesn't serve shots or we would all have been calling cabs! She also talked about where she gets the ideas for her characters from. She said, "If you ever see me sitting near you in a restaurant, reading my book, I can promise you that I'm not reading. I'm listening to every word you say. My favorite places to eavesdrop are airport bars. You overhear just enough as people walk by that you just have to fill in the gaps with your own story. And…